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South African diamond miner being x-rayed at the end of his shift to prevent theft, 1954
(lemmy.world)
this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2023
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I do wonder whether this was actually an effective way to look for them. Even with modern high resolution x-ray imaging it may be difficult to see the contrast between soft tissues and diamonds since they're both primarily carbon
bones show up well since they're high in calcium, which has a much higher atomic number. Same with gold.
You do realize the mine has lots of diamonds they could test with?
Sure man. You go stand in the beam with a sack of diamonds up your butt and we'll watch
That's not my point. People running the mine could easily check if raw diamonds interact with X-rays.